USA Today Is Lambasted for Printing Trump’s Lies on Healthcare

The Washington Post’s fact-check team reported Wednesday that almost every sentence in Trump’s opinion article for USA Today contains a misleading statement or a falsehood.

The op-ed, which states “Democrats ‘Medicare for All’ plan will demolish promises to seniors,” contains previously debunked claims, the Post wrote.

“Presumably the president is aware of our fact checks—he even links to one—but chose to ignore the facts in service of a campaign-style op-ed,” the article said.

The Post dissected the president’s piece line-by-line and found almost every statement to be a lie.

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And now USA Today is coming under fire for publishing such blatant untruths at such a crucial time in an election year.

Jim Acosta from CNN wrote:

“This column may break the record for the number of falsehoods from a President ever published in a newspaper op-Ed. Just this tweet alone is false – “outlaw private health care plans” and “letting anyone cross our border” Huh? Fact check: false and false. Come on USA Today.”

And Congressman Ted Lieu, a major Trump critic, wrote:

“Why did @realDonaldTrump write a false & misleading OpEd in USA Today on healthcare? Because the #GOP is getting obliterated on this issue. Americans watched the GOP sabotage healthcare. We watched the GOP sue to deny preexisting conditions coverage. And we will vote accordingly.”

And as one journalist pointed out, USA Today not only published Trump’s lies but also further broadcast them through a posting on Twitter:

“USA Today not only published a White House press release disguised as an “op-ed by Donald Trump,” it is using its Twitter account to blast out the article’s lies to 3.6 million followers.”

Here are some of Trump’s outrageous lies, as published by USA Today:

• “Throughout the year, we have seen Democrats across the country uniting around a new legislative proposal that would end Medicare as we know it and take away benefits that seniors have paid for their entire lives.”
• “As a candidate, I promised that we would protect coverage for patients with pre-existing conditions and create new health care insurance options that would lower premiums. I have kept that promise, and we are now seeing health insurance premiums coming down.”
• “I also made a solemn promise to our great seniors to protect Medicare. That is why I am fighting so hard against the Democrats’ plan that would eviscerate Medicare.”
• “Democrats have already harmed seniors by slashing Medicare by more than $800 billion over 10 years to pay for Obamacare.”

What’s important of course is to recognize that NONE of what Donald Trump wrote is true. But by printing Trump’s lies USA Today has done incalculable damage to the fight for universal healthcare in the United States.

It is up to us to set the record straight and to make sure that Trump’s lies are not believed by the majority of voters as they cast votes over the next several weeks and on election day. The future of American healthcare — and of America itself — hangs in the balance.

Leo Vidal

I am a lifelong Democrat with a passion for social justice and progressive issues. I have degrees in writing, economics and law from the University of Iowa.